Getting In: A College Coach Conversation

Thursday at 1 PM Pacific

August 10th 2017:Office Hours: Starting the College Essay; Inside the Admissions Office

Students about to start senior year will want to catch this week’s Office Hours, in which we discuss getting started on the college essay. We know it’s weighing on your mind, so stop thinking about it and start writing it! In other segments, we’ll take you behind the scenes of the admissions process at both Swarthmore College and Drexel University in the latest in this series. Finally, we’ll talk through the things you need to know if your grandparents are going to help pay for college.

Tune in

Featured Guests

Kennon Dick

Kennon Dick has devoted almost his entire career to the admissions profession. He comes to College Coach from the admissions staff at Swarthmore College where he performed the duties of Associate Dean of Admissions for eight years. In that capacity, he training new deans for the reading process, trained and coordinated part-time readers, managed the admissions database, and served as the athletics department liaison. He has been active in the New York State Association for College Admission Counseling, presented workshops at the Pennsylvania Association for College Admission Counseling and co-presented a workshop at the national Summit Conference. A graduate of the College of William and

Karen Spencer

Karen Spencer has worked in education for her entire career. After graduating from Valparaiso University in Indiana, she went on to receive her master in education degree from the University of Virginia. Her love of education began when she was a tour guide at Valpo and in the admissions office of the Curry School of Education at UVA. She began her professional work in residence life at Hope College (MI) and then at Franklin & Marshall College (PA) in admissions. Most recently Karen worked as the assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Georgetown University (DC) where she was responsible for recruitment and transfer admissions, and sat on the admissions committee for the McDonou

Tara Piantanida-Kelly

Tara Piantanida-Kelly comes to College Coach with more than 20 years of experience working in college financial aid offices. She worked her way up from an entry-level financial aid counselor position before accepting her first director of financial aid position at Menlo College. From there, she launched a successful financial aid consulting business, Financial Aid Solutions. From 1995 until 2005, Tara consulted at more than 20 colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since then, she has continued her career as the director of financial aid at Northwest College, the associate director of financial aid at Rochester Institute of Technology, and as a financial aid training sp